Twilight Princess Midna's 'Voice Acting'

[Din Akera]

I looked at the other threads on voice acting and found most of them were about expecting/wanting/ or not wanting it in future games and the discussion of that, but what I thought was that, Nintendo did experiment, just dipping their toes, into voice acting with Midna. Now, before you jump on me with 'it wasn't real speech' I want to acknowledge that fact and talk about it.

Would you consider Midna's talking as a form of voice acting? Do you think it worked for TP? or you could have done without?

A little further, we have seen throughout the series expressive noises from many different characters, with giggles, grumbles, yells, and of course pained screams from our hero. Do you think these types of noises/effects are well enough to suit the characters feelings?

Keep in mind, I'm not talking about future. Did it work in the past?

 

[SageOfDawn51]

I liked it, I thought it was fine. I think it's okay if Nintendo does that kind of VA, just don't have Link saying...
"I love Zelda, I like to drink Lon Lon Milk, I thought I was a Kokiri..."

Side-Note: It's funny, on Youtube, people get Midna saying actual stuff like "this is not fried chicken" and "I DON'T CARE *****"

 

[Xinnamin]

I personally rather like the type of voice acting they used with Midna, I just didn't like how it was implemented in TP. Real voice acting bothers me because I rarely feel like the voice actor gets the emotions of the scene right. Sometimes they sound too much like they are reading off a script, sometimes they just convey a mood that I don't think fits the scene, stuff like that. With pseudo-voice acting, kinda like what Midna did, there's no worry about the problems of real voice acting, but TP pulled it off really poorly. Midna was the only one who made noise, so in scenes where she was talking with other characters, it seemed so out of place that she made noise while everyone else was totally mute. Also, I personally felt Midna's "language" was too distinct, reusing only a small sample of pre-recorded "sentences" for her entire script of dialogue was a bit irksome really.

However, I still like the idea of pseudo-voice acting, since it at least gives the impression people are talking without feeling like script reading and other problems. I would just like it to be less distinct, and more just that the characters are making some kind of noise. I'm reminded of Okami's voice acting, where each character "spoke" with jumbles of incoherent noises of different pitches to distinguish between people and different intensities to distinguish between moods. It was a bit strange and uncomfortable at first, but I really grew to like it. Granted, I'm not sure how well such pseudo-voice acting would work in a different game, but Okami did it very well I think.

Going back to TP and whether such voicing works in Zelda, I say it's preferable to actual distinct voice acting, just out of personal preference. I wouldn't mind if Nintendo continued to handle voicing with those kinds of sound effects, I wouldn't care if they scrapped it, but if they are going to use it they have to use it for everyone. It can work, but it didn't work as well as it could in TP because only Midna had it. Give some kind of noise to every speaking individual, combine it with emotion sound effects like giggles and grunts, and I think it can work. Those kinds of noises have always done well enough for me.

 

[February Eve]

Midna's speech didn't distract me, and I wouldn't mind if Nintendo further experimented with it. I've thought about it before and I think one of the advantages to it is that it can remain the same from region to region...it doesn't have to be translated, and no new voice actors hired, for each country. On the other hand, I think one reason it worked in Twilight Princess' case is that Midna was from a foreign land. Not being able to understand her speech was a way to set her apart from the other characters. If we're talking to people that we're supposed to understand, though, a "foreign language", so to speak, may make it seem like we are less immersed in the story. Of course, it could also make it seem like Hyrule is more of its own country.

If I seem like I am of mixed minds about the issue...I am. As always, it depends on the execution of it.

As for the other question, the concept of the yelling and grunting has never bothered me. More its placement. I think it's funny to hear Link yell as he goes over the waterfall in Zora's domain in Twilight Princess, but if it's used too often, it could get annoying. I do think it's a nice way to add some natural sounds to world without speaking, though.

 

[PhantomTriforce]

I didn't really find Midna's mumbles to be voice acting. Link has always done these kind of noises, and I don't consider that as voice acting, so this falls into the same concept for me. But I don't mind if they experiment with different kinds of noises with different characters.

 

[Michael Heide]

If Midna's gibberish is voice acting, then Link's "Come On!" in Wind Waker has to count as well. They might as well go all the way and make the switch to full voice acting. Pseudo-voice acting is just no longer suited for 2010. And full silence is complete and utter failure.

 

[kittensouls]

I'd love to see voice acting, especially to see Link taunting Ganon. BTW, I've Midna say to Wolf Link, "Go eat dog food."

 

[Icetomeetyou]

I liked what they did with Midna. It did strike me as odd that she was the only one with the "voice acting." I honestly like it would be fine to put it in future games. What I wouldn't like was full on voice acting because most of the voice acting I've heard has been terrible. Just think of Tidus (SP?) from Final Fantasy. His laugh was terrible and sounded fake. Would I like to see that in the Zelda series? Heck no.

 

[Michael Heide]

Tidus wasn't good, but that shouldn't mean that voice acting is always bad. To quote Bill Hicks: "I had good and bad relationships, but I'm not giving up [women]".

Splinter Cell has great voice acting. L.A. Noire will have great voice acting. The Silent Hill games tend to have solid voice acting. And what would Metal Gear Solid be without "SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!"?

And now imagine all of those games with Midna's quasi-voice acting. It just wouldn't have the same atmosphere. I say do it right or don't do it at all.